


Cousin Child Care.

by coughingupfeathers, cuddlepuss



Category: Balthazar - Fandom, Castiel - Fandom, Dean Winchester - Fandom, Gabriel - Fandom, Kevin Tran - Fandom, Sam Winchester - Fandom, Supernatural
Genre: Angels, Family, Hunting, Multi, Mystery, Nephilim, Surprise Appearance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-17
Updated: 2014-05-17
Packaged: 2018-01-25 10:55:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,070
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1646108
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/coughingupfeathers/pseuds/coughingupfeathers, https://archiveofourown.org/users/cuddlepuss/pseuds/cuddlepuss
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When a recently discovered niece arrives unannounced at the bunker, it's a mystery how she got there and found it. But after she's been healed, she is needed to take care of a two year old nephilim, but she's never had contact with a child before and knows nothing of how to care for her. With help from Kevin, and her 'Father', she copes, sort of, but is she prepar5ed for what it will mean for her furture?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Cousin Child Care.

**Author's Note:**

> The Nephilim, Ruth Allen, belongs to my daughter, DevientArt's LittleBlackMariah.
> 
> The Nephilim, Annie Milton Winchester, Belongs to me, Cuddlepuss.
> 
> This was written at the behest of Littleblackmariah to bring the cousins together.

Just as the dawn lit golden orange streaks across the lightening sky, the door of the bunker sounded with a rapid fire knocking, and Sam, stumbling tiredly to it, opened the door to see his newly discovered niece, Ruth, standing on the stoop. Cold, pale and miserable looking, her jeans, tee shirt and jacket little more than rags. Startled, but pleased to see her, he showed her in.

No, despite all his bed hopping, she wasn’t Dean’s child, although at 22 she was scarcely that, she was the daughter of one of Gabriel and Castiel’s brothers. The product of a drunken one night New Year’s fling in 1990. Growing up fatherless, and with her mother becoming a hunter after buying a haunted house when Ruth was just 4 (only living to tell the tale because Bobby Singer and John Winchester arrived in time to save their lives).

When she was 8, something happened that had lead mother and daughter, Stella and Ruth to understand that whatever her father was, human wasn’t it. She’d been rowing with her mother about …who could remember what now, and suddenly, she’d doubled over in agony, her back feeling as though it was being sliced open from shoulder blade to spinal column. 

Then, out of the blue, two, stubby (comparatively), brownish grey WINGS erupted from her shoulders, flopping over her arms and slapping damply to the floor. They both stared in amazement, stunned as to why and HOW these things had appeared. Snapping out of it, Stella, reacting with the instinct of a mother for a new born babe, went to get a wet cloth and some dry, soft clean towels, to clean and dry them with. 

Gazing at the newly visible appendages, Stella and Ruth realised with a dawning dread that whatever had parented her, Ruth wasn’t ALL human. They didn’t know what the hell she was, but there was something supernatural, or extra-terrestrial about her. Stella snatched up her computer and started to look at what looked human but had wings, the only thing that fit the guidelines of her search? AN ANGEL. 

A friggin Angel had to be the answer, disbelievingly, Stella called Ruth over to her to read for herself – neither could wrap their heads around the fact that Angels, far from being fantasy creatures from the Bible, were actually real and went so far as to breed with the ‘People Of Earth’ that their father, ‘God’, had created. 

Now, with her collapsing in his arms, Sam scooped her up, and carried her inside, kicking the door shut on his way, and shouting for the rest of the bunker’s inhabitants to assemble and assist him with their surprise visitor. Cas and Dean were the first to appear, hastily pulling their clothing straight as they ran into the room, Kevin not far behind them.

With Sam sitting on the couch, Ruth held gently to his chest, Dean ran for the first aid kit while Kevin stared, stunned at the pale beauty in Sam’s arms, and Cas leant in to examine her for injuries. Then Sam noticed a stream of blood trickling down his arm from alongside her shoulder, but not from her shoulder, cursing, he drew Castiel’s attention to it. Her wing had been lacerated in whatever fight she’d just had. As she moaned quietly in pain, Dean arrived back and started to deal with the visible wounds on his niece, while his brother cradled her, murmuring soft reassurances and Kevin came closer to take a hand in the spirit of friendship. Castiel, standing behind her, placed a gentle touch to her wing and repaired the main part of the damage, enough to allow her to calm and settle.

Just then, as Ruth started to come around, Gabe and Annie appeared, Annie running over to meet the new person, Gabe eyeing Sam holding her on his lap with suspicion. Cas introduced Ruth to Gabriel and Annie as soon as she was alert enough to take in what was being said to her, Sam, seeing the look on Gabe’s face, told him that she was his, Gabe’s, niece. Annie was reaching for Ruth’s wing when Cas lifted her up into his arms, away from the feathery temptation.

Gabriel was confused, to say the least, looking from Castiel to Ruth Dean, to Sam then back to Cas as if wondering if she was Castiel’s child. Sam, rolling his eyes, explained which of Gabriel’s siblings was her parent, and the fact that she was a hunter, and her mother was dead. With a sad look on his face, Gabriel welcomed her to the family, and healed her injuries fully. Kevin was introduced when Ruth realised her hand was being held.

Ruth, still looking slightly dazed, was carried to, and placed in, one of the spare beds in a room next to Kevin’s in one of the quieter parts of the bunker. Sighing with pleasure at the soft warmth of the bed, she finally settled enough to sleep, leaving the rest of the group to ponder how she got there, and how she’d found a hidden bunker.

Hours passed, and the group continued with its usual activities, research, tablet decoding, weapons repair and cleaning, cooking, shopping, and talking, an eye being kept out for the new arrival when she stirred. When she did venture forth, she found Sam first, just as she had when she’d arrived that morning, sat at a table, book in front of him, sandwich and coffee alongside as he studied some of the rarer texts the library had to offer.

Spinning round in his seat when he heard her approach, he smiled and asked if she wanted something to eat or drink, a rumble from her stomach gave him the answer and he grinned as he led her to the kitchen where Cas and Dean were cooking. Sam made a sandwich for her while Cas got her some coffee, Kevin, Gabe and Annie arriving just as he put it on the table. 

_”Woufie!”_ Annie cried with pleasure as she spied her sitting at the table, pulling her hand free of her Daddy’s and scrambling to get into a chair beside her fascinating newly discovered cousin. Ruth, with a puzzled look on her face, eyed the little girl as she leaned dangerously far over to try and reach the 22 year olds lap. Sam, putting the sandwich on the table, scooped Annie to safety before she could plunge to the floor.

Ruth looked askance at her taller Uncle, she’d no memory of her meeting the toddler just before she was put to bed, so had no idea of who she was. Sam, tickling Annie’s tummy as he settled into a chair beside his niece, grinned and explained that Annie was his daughter, his and Gabriel’s, and she’d seen Ruth before he’d carried her to bed for a rest. Ruth, vaguely remembering being carried before settling into bed nodded.

It was late afternoon by now, and though Sam had given her a sandwich, she joined them all for dinner that evening anyway, sitting quietly on her chair, eyes on her meal, trying to stay invisible to the rest of the group – not that that would work too well with as little as they all knew of one another. Kevin, sitting opposite her, was obviously keen and wanting to get to know her better. Shyly, Ruth met his gaze. 

After dinner, once Annie was in bed for the night, Dean asked the sixty-four thousand dollar question – how had Ruth found them at the top secret bunker? Answer? She didn’t know, had no idea how she’d wound up at their door, had only known that she needed help and then she’d been there, a door in front of her, so she banged on it, hoping for the best. With the mystery unsolved, Gabe came over to her, and softly, like he would to Annie, laid two fingers on her forehead, reading her memories.

Sighing, he stepped back, and looked at her with both interest and …..Sympathy? in his eyes. Sweeping his gaze over everyone there present, he said _”It’s true folks, she doesn’t remember. But I think I’ve an idea how she got here. Ruth, do you recall, when you all met at Mr Singer’s yard that time, they all hugged you? That hug gave your very small amount of angel grace a link to Castiel’s grace, and so, when you were in need, it brought you to the closest relative it could trace, Castiel, the link amplified by his being with Dean and Sam.”_

Cas, his head tilted to one side in a very familiar way, looked at Ruth, more interested than before in spite of himself. This was a new idea, and bore careful thought. Sam and Dean, meantime, were exchanging glances, wondering if the same would happen for Annie as she got older. Dean was the first to respond verbally, saying that, however she’d gotten there, she was family, and that meant she had a home with them for as long as she wanted. Sam nodded in agreement.

Three days later, Gabriel woke Ruth at six thirty in the morning, Annie clinging to his hand as he gently but meaningfully shook her awake, a plea for a favour on his lips, and a coffee in his spare hand, groggily, she sat up and rubbed at her eyes. Peering at her Uncle, she accepted the coffee and took a sip, it wasn’t a trick then, it was made just as she liked it, so what was the favour. When she was told, her mouth fell open in disbelief.

 _”You want me to do WHAT?_ Annie grinned cheekily and clambered onto the bed, nestling into her cousin’s lap and snuggling in. Sam spoke from the doorway _”Sorry to do this to you, but we’ve got no other choice. There’s a really serious werewolf problem three states over, and it’ll take all of us to tackle it, so we need you to mind Annie for the few days we have to be away. Look, if there was any other option, we’d not trouble you, but there isn’t, and Kevin will be here working on the tablet translation, so you won’t be completely alone. Please Ruth, we’re desperate here. You can always call your Father if you get really stuck.”_ Sam added with a cheeky grin. With a weary, put upon sigh, Ruth nodded.

Taking a protesting Annie with them, the males left Ruth to get dressed and set off to warn Kevin of what was happening. It was the first time both Gabriel and Sam had been away when Cas and Dean hadn’t been there for Annie, so they weren’t sure how the young nephilim would react once they were gone, nor how Ruth would cope. Sam, practical as ever, wrote out a timetable of Annie’s day, along with the sort of things that were acceptable for her at different mealtimes. Sam pretended not to see Gabriel amending it. 

When she was semi-awake, Ruth headed into the kitchen to find the hunters, the angels, the prophet and Annie all there having breakfast together before the adults left on their hunt. With big hugs for Annie, last minute instructions for Ruth and Kevin, they left. While Kevin did the dishes and cleared away the breakfast things Annie and Ruth went to watch tv. An hour or so later, and Annie started to shift about uncomfortably, shuffling to and fro on her bottom, and whimpering, Ruth was bewildered.

Annie, finally having had enough, broke out into full scale wails as she jumped up and pulled at her butt, fidgeting about and seeming upset, Ruth still had no clues on what to do to calm her down. _”Wouffie, my pooped my bum!”_ Oh, THAT’s what the problem was. Damn. How was Ruth meant to deal with that? She’d no idea if Annie wore diapers or pull up pants, knickers or what. With a sigh, she asked Annie where she could clean her up, and find some fresh butt-covers. Pulling her along by the thigh, Annie led Ruth to her nursery.

‘Let the adventures begin’. Thought Ruth to herself as she came across a large pack of pull up pants and a couple of packs of baby wipes and some nappisacks. Having removed the soiled pants, cleaned and creamed Annie’s butt, then put her on a fresh pair of pull ups, Ruth asked if she wanted the toilet. _**”NO!”**_ came the extremely forthright answer.

Annie didn’t like the toilet – the sound of the flush scared her, and she knew that sometimes frightening things lurked around them. Spiders and insects and the likes – things too terrifying for her just two year old mind to countenance.

The deed done, and back in the living room, Annie grew bored of the tv and wanted to DO something, but what. At two, Annie’s grasp on the language was sometimes a little off, meaning a guessing game as to what she actually meant, Ruth’s inexperience was a handicap in this way, she didn’t know what Annie meant when she announced that they should ‘Mate a Tape’.

Rubbing her soon-to-be-aching-head, Ruth took Annie along to see Kevin, see if he could translate what she meant. Chuckling, Kevin said she wanted to _MAKE A CAKE_. Grunting at his mirth, they departed for the kitchen. Having little knowledge of the more domestic chores (like cooking), Ruth was excessively grateful to discover SOMEONE had a collection of basic cook books on a shelf in the kitchen – over cookies and milk, Ruth found a recipe for a simple sponge cake, just four ingredients that were, fortunately, all in the cupboards of the bunker’s spacious larder.

With the milk and cookies finished, Ruth, reluctantly, ceded to her charge, and gathered the ingredients and utensils needed to attempt to bake a cake. Following the exact details – to the letter – as set out in the book, they soon had a creamy white batter made and poured into the prepared cake pan, that, then set in the pre-heated oven. All that was left was to remove it when it was done.

That’s when trouble struck. Annie, for whatever reason, started to act up, shouting, screaming, throwing things, kicking and basically having a real temper tantrum – they aren’t known as the terrible twos for nothing, after all – and Ruth was trying to both calm her down and avoid being pelted with eggs, sugar, flour and butter (yes, she’d inherited Gabriel’s trickster nature), forgetting all about the oven….

…right up until thick black smoke started to spiral out of the oven and waft through the kitchen, setting off alarms and bringing Kevin running. Switching off the power to the stove, Kevin grabbed the fire extinguisher, and battled the small but persistent flames licking at the charred remains of Ruth and Annie’s cake. Ruth was feeling a little heated too as she marched Annie from the kitchen and plonked her back before the tv again.

Kevin wandered in, smelling of smoke and slightly flustered, to offer some support for a while, perhaps taking pity on the frazzled look on Ruth’s otherwise beautiful young face. The three sat and watched Tangled, Annie getting lost in the action of a film she’d watched countless times with Daddy Gabe. 

When the film finished, Annie, though seeming tired, was, once more, on her way to a tantrum. Kevin, noting the time, announced _”Lunch time, ladies.”_ and marched back into the kitchen to consult the list of lunch possibilities for Annie. With a weary sigh, Ruth hauled herself to her feet and followed him.

Scanning the list of acceptable foods on Annie’s lunch time list, Ruth found that Sam had put salad sandwiches, chips, fruit and cheese, while someone (Gabriel, she thought) had added cake, ice cream and candy. Smiling to Annie, she made up sandwiches, and put juice, cake, chips and apples with them, then the three sat down to eat.

After lunch, while Annie took a nap, and Kevin returned to his work on the tablet, Ruth restored the kitchen to its former state of tidiness and scrubbed away all signs of the disaster that had been the aborted cake attempt. With a quiet sigh of relief, she flopped onto the couch with a coffee, putting on the tv to watch Animal Planet. Closing her eyes for a moment to relax…

…next thing she knew, Annie was hanging off of one of her wings, which must have come out as her slept, playing with the grey brown feathers and tickling softly. With a delighted laugh, she clambered awkwardly onto Ruth’s lap and snuggled into her, wrapping the messy, dishevelled wings around her and sitting to watch the elephants the current program was about.

With a weary smile, Ruth gently tugged the smaller nephilim closer and settled down to watch with her. A scream came from the two year old when the next program started, all about spiders and other arachnids, Annie showing very clearly what she thought of such creatures – Ruth, coincidentally, in full agreement. That’s when Annie, once more squirming around on Ruth’s lap, announced _”Me pooped Wouffie!”_ The two set off for the nursery.

Arriving in the nursery, Ruth and Annie let out a duet of piercing screams, bringing Kevin running to see what was wrong, only to find both young nephilim clinging to one another in the hall outside the room, a large, black, huntsman spider sitting on the centre of the change table. With a roll of his shoulders, Kevin, who wasn’t keen on spiders, but also wasn’t scared of them, fetched a jar and piece of cardboard and caught it, releasing it outside to make a home elsewhere. 

After a while, when the offending pants were changed, the young nephilim was once more curious about her newly discovered, older, cousin, and was asking questions, questions that Ruth didn’t want to answer.

 _”Wouffie, Daddy Gabiew dot wingies, Dada Sammy not. Unkew Cas dot wingies, Unkew Dea not. Is you Mommi owr Daddy dot wingies?”_ Ruth frowned, not liking where this was heading. _”My Father, Balthazar, has wings. He, unfortunately, is an Angel like Uncle Cas.”_ Annie, tilting her head to one side, in a move reminiscent of her Daddy Gabe and Uncle Cas, looked quizzically at Ruth before deciding that she wanted to meet this other Uncle. Ruth was definitely against that idea.

 _”Wouffie, want see Unkew Baofava! Pwease? Me be dood dirl!”_ Scowling now, Ruth shook her head. _”No, Annie, I don’t want to see my Father.”_ Annie pouted, pulling Dada Sam’s best ‘puppy dog’ eyes (hers were much harder to resist) and asked again _”Pwease Wouffie! Pwease! Me wanna see Baofava! Pweeeeeeeeeaaaaaase!_ With an internal demand for him to ‘not bloody dare!’ Ruth whispered a plea for him to appear.

 _”Hello sweetie, what’s your name?”_ Annie, peeking around Ruth’s legs, eyed the new arrival warily. _”You Baofava?”_ Getting to one knee as Ruth cursed under her breath, Balthazar smiled at the little girl, and said _”Yes, I am. So who are you?”_ Annie grinned at him, stepping a little further from her cousins legs, _”I Annie!_ Balthazar held his hands out to her, and she gamely took hold of one and gave it a tug. Balthazar turned his attention to Ruth. 

_”Ruth, I didn’t know you had a child. Who’s the Father?”_ Ruth rolled her eyes. _”Don’t get your feathers ruffled pops, you aren’t a grandfather – you’re her Uncle. Let me introduce Annie Milton Winchester.”_ Balthazar was stunned. _”How in Father’s name does that work?”_ Ruth gave a deep sigh. _”Not really my story to tell, but I gather Uncle Gabe conned Uncle Sam into giving him a ‘sample’ and Uncle Gabriel took it from there.”_ Annie smacked Ruth demanding she ‘not be mean’ about her Daddy Gabiew.

Balthazar’s expression was a picture – somewhere between stunned disbelief and world-weary disgust – it certainly had Ruth laughing, while Annie, looking from one to the other, frowned, not sure what the look on Baofava’s face meant, nor the meaning of Wouffie’s laughter. Eyeing them both, she wandered off to seek out the young prophet.

Kevin, startled at having a small hand suddenly landing on his knee when he was lost in his studies, dropped his pencil and looked up, a smile lighting his face when he realised who was disturbing him, getting to his feet and taking her hand before leading Annie back to the lounge area, only to stop dead at the sight of a stranger in there with Ruth. Annie, tugging on his hand, demanded Kevin meet ‘Baofava’.

Kevin, walking cautiously in behind the two year old, looked at the older male with a hint of suspicion and a mild curiosity, making Ruth, who’d just noticed his entrance, laugh even harder. Biting back her giggles, Ruth introduced Kevin to ‘my father, the winged douche, Balthazar’, and he held his hand out politely to be shaken. Balthazar merely looks on, unimpressed – until Annie mentions Kevin’s a ‘pwofit’.

Annie, apparently just noticing something, tugs on Ruth’s hand and announces her ‘cwoves is dutty n tore’, and that she needs to go change. With a deep sigh, Ruth explains that she HAS no clothes in a better state, and that she will not accept anything from her ‘Dad’. Kevin sighs, grabs his car keys and wallet, and states that, as she needs clothes, she can accept them as payment for looking after Annie, and they’re all going NOW, to the store, to choose her some. No arguments allowed. Hefting a put upon sigh, Ruth gave in.

Once they were at Wal-Mart, Annie was put into the child seat facing the handles, which Kevin took, and they went in, Kevin saying to Ruth _”Right, two pairs of trousers, three shirts, a jumper, jacket, and footwear. MINIMUM. Or I let Annie pick out everything she’d like to see you in.”_ Swearing under her breath, Ruth agreed – flushing red when Kevin was prompted by Annie that ‘Wouffie’ would need knickers. Balthazar, leaning in, murmured a reminder of bras too, much to their mutual embarrassment.  
As they wandered around, Ruth selecting pastel shaded shirts and dark jeans, with tan hiking boots and a black hoody, Annie, lurching across the side of the handles, snagged a dark blue, red and green plaid over shirt that, as she stated, ‘looked like Dada Sammy’s’. Not especially liking it, but seeing Balthazar flinch from the reminder of his …..not-so-beloved human friends, Ruth accepted it, smirking at Kevin as she did so. 

While she was off, selecting underwear, Ruth found some children’s clothing and immediately fell for a skirt covered in candy canes and lollipops, a tee-shirt with a large basket of salad and the slogan ‘grow your own’, a pair of pale blue tights covered in bees and a black jacket with ACDC on the front. She picked them up for her cousin. With a little thought, she found a shirt for Kevin with the slogan ‘Prophetably Employed’.

Returning to the group, she found that they were now on their way to collect some groceries, apparently Annie had loudly announced that they ‘needed some pie’. On route to collect said pastry goods, they passed the freezers and the little one, spotting something that brought a favoured Uncle to mind, also demanded ‘bugas’, snickering to herself at her dad’s confusion, Ruth snagged some frozen beef patties and tossed them into the trolley. Then came the cakes – for Daddy Gabiew, and a large selection of salad veg for Dada Sammy, before the usual hunters helper and beer. They also stocked up on sodas for the younger members of the household, and some whine for the visiting whinger.

Getting back to the bunker, they left Balthazar in charge of getting dinner that night, while Kevin changed Annie, and Ruth put on some of her new clean clothes. Without any thought at all, Balthazar willed into existence a luscious casserole of red wine, venison and seasonal vegetables, with baby new potatoes and steamed greens. Annie refused to so much as taste it, and Kevin, being vegan, was highly unimpressed. Ruth didn’t bother hiding a laugh.

Kevin made cheese or mushroom toasties for everyone else and Balthazar was left with an entire meal for four to himself. They followed them up with some fruits in jello that Gabriel left in the fridge. Annie fell asleep on Ruth’s lap that night, one of her wings pulled across for a blanket. That’s when Kevin noticed something …..odd.

Calling Ruth to one side, he asked about the state of her wings, more specifically, how untidy they were, pointing out that he’d seen Castiel’s and Gabriel’s, not to mention Annie’s, and knew they were normally as neat as a birds. Huffing impatiently, as though the answer was obvious, Ruth snapped that, with no _angelic_ instruction on the care of them, ever, she’d no idea on how to care for them, and just left them to their own devices most of the time.

‘Daddy’ Balthazar overheard, and was not amused. _”Ruth, wing care is immensely important, and very private. The wings are an extension of an Angel’s grace, what would be a human’s soul, and someone other than family looking after them would be like having a stranger trim your pubic hair – IN PUBLIC! Now, sit down and let me look at them.”_ Ruth immediately turned on her father, and snarked that HE was a stranger – she knew Kevin better, and so elected that, as ‘daddy’ maintained that it was so vital that her wings be groomed, ‘daddy’ could occupy Annie while Kevin took care of her wings, Balthazar, infuriated, but meeting a look of determination on his daughters face, resigned himself to it being as he was told.

With a nervous look at the Angel, Kevin accepted a brush from Ruth and sat her down at the library table to get a good angle on her wings. Seeing how matted and ruffled they were, he put down the brush, saying first he thought his fingers would hurt less, to get the largest of the matts and tangles out, before brushing them with a fine bristled brush, and then washing them gently with warm soapy water and wiping them softly with a towel.

With a sigh of pleasure, Ruth’s muscles started to unknot themselves – the first time in years she’d relaxed that much, literally not knowing how much the state of her wings was affecting her physical, and emotional, state. When he’d finished, Ruth was all but asleep at the table, a situation that Kevin and Balthazar were happy to let stay. Balthazar kept Annie occupied while Kevin fixed the kitchen up again.

Next morning, Kevin got a call from the Winchesters and co, saying that they’d be home about four in the afternoon that day – the hunt had been easier than expected, and so hadn’t taken as long. After reassuring the anxious parents that their little girl was in good hands and had been well behaved, Kevin spread the word of their return around to everyone else in the bunker. Annie was overjoyed that Dada Sammy, Daddy Gabiew, Unkew Cas and Unkew Dea would be back, while Ruth was undecided about how she felt about her caring for Annie being cut short, and Balthazar looking forward to having words with his brother about his being a secret parent.

That morning, they, all four of them, made cookies and cupcakes – Ruth paying more attention to the oven this time, and the afternoon changing the linens on ALL the beds, getting them clean and fresh smelling for when the tired males got back. At three thirty, Ruth changed Annie into the new clothes she’d bought for her, to see what, if anything, her family would have to say about the garments. 

At four thirteen, the throaty growl of the Impala was heard outside the door, and Annie had to be restrained from dashing headlong out into the garage to glomp her parents. Minutes later, four tired, but happy, males entered the building and delighted grins lit up their faces at seeing the precious little lady, happily settled, for the moment, in the arms of her cousin. That was until the split second Dada got his feet onto the floor of the main room.

With an ear-piercing screech of _”Dada Sammy!”_ she wriggled down and shot across the room as fast as her little legs would carry her, leaping up as high as she could while Sam dropped his bag and scooped her up, Gabriel right behind him, closely followed by Dean and Castiel, all of them joining in the hugs. Kevin wandered off to make coffee while Ruth and Balthazar were greeted, and much made of the new clothes that Annie wore, Ruth brushing it aside as payback for Annie’s insisting she had to have some new clothes.

Once the excitement of the return was calmed down, and they all had coffee and cookies, or cupcakes for Gabriel, the men that returned found out what they’d all been up to in their absence, grinning at one another when Ruth explained about Annie’s demands to meet ‘Baofava, Wouffie’s dad.’ They knew first-hand how demanding and imperious she could be. 

Grins turned to shock on behalf of the angels when they found out that Ruth had demanded that, if Balthazar was going to insist on her wings being groomed, Kevin do it rather than her father. Ruth gave a smug grin, before explaining that she knew Kevin much better than she knew her ‘Father’, or sperm donor, as she called him, so, if it was as personal as he’d made out, no way was she going to let anyone BUT Kevin do the job. With a flushed shrug, Kevin looked away.

A few hours later, and Ruth was in the kitchen with Kevin again, rustling up Burgers, fries, salad and pie for dinner – much to the delighted surprise of the returned party of hunters and Angels, and they chatted as they cooked. Dean, and Gabriel, being their usual selves, and unable to leave things well enough alone, started to make ‘smooching’ sounds and make sly innuendos about what was happening in the kitchen. With a threat from Ruth of ‘no pie or candy’ from the secret stash laid in while they were away, they sulked, but knocked it off. With everyone back and happy, they all ate in peace.


End file.
